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War in a Box
Sure enough, the Thursday edition of the New York Times had no room for the historic debate on its front page, which did have room for a large Starbucks ad across the bottom.
Despite the news media and the lopsided pro-war tilt on Capitol Hill (reflected in the 356-65 vote Wednesday against invoking the War Powers Act), antiwar organizing has a lot of hospitable terrain at the grassroots. National polling shows widespread opposition to the Afghanistan war effort -- a far cry from the dominant lockstep conformity in Congress.
"Apparently, as with many issues in Washington," Congressman John Conyers said in a written statement hours before the vote, "those who are forced [to] bear the costs of war are the first to recognize a flawed policy, while those who profit from perpetual war do their best to blunt any change in course."
Yet the three-hour debate was a step forward, offering a basic clash of assumptions. Cogent eloquence came from many who spoke in support of the antiwar resolution, introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich. The 65 votes for it should serve as a floor to build on.
But among the obstacles are snappy wooden constructs of language and attitude. Consider how a glib phrase now in vogue among Pentagon boosters and journalists -- "government in a box" -- mirrors the jaw-dropping arrogance of imperial power.
At the outset of its March 8 cover story "Taking on the Taliban," Time magazine recounts that Gen. Stanley McChrystal developed a clever plan for the U.S.-led counterinsurgency forces taking Marjah: "He described how these troops would protect the town while a ‘government in a box' -- a corps of Afghan officials who had been training for this moment for months -- would start administering the town."
Three pages and 19 paragraphs later, the article gets around to a less uplifting fact: "It can hardly be reassuring to the residents of Marjah that their newly appointed mayor, Haji Zahir, has only recently returned from 15 years of living in Germany."
That's "government in a box" for you -- akin to the illusion that war can be sequestered in some kind of container -- the sort of feat that's possible only in fantasies.
Martin Luther King Jr. aptly likened the Vietnam War to a "demonic suction tube." And demonic suction tubes can't be boxed. In the real world, war's ripple effects lead to a kaleidoscope of terrible consequences, near and far. You can't keep a war in a box any more than you can deliver a government in a box.
With enthusiasm for war thriving on abstraction, its facile backers are eager to cheer on activities that bring terror, anguish and death as a matter of course.
That's what Congresswoman Barbara Lee was driving at when she spoke for a minute on the House floor just before the blank check for carnage in Afghanistan sailed through Congress with only her vote dissenting. "As we act," she said, "let us not become the evil that we deplore."
More than 100 months later, watching video of her prophetic statement may be enough to make you weep.
And it might strengthen your resolve to help end the military occupation that she tried to prevent.
- Posted in
45 Comments so far
Show AllIn the old Soviet Union the media was considered just another arm of the government and the american media is pretty much like that.
The difference is that in the USSR the people knew the government/media was lying, not so, in the states.
Solomon: "The 65 votes for it should serve as a floor to build on."
Is he crazy? Norm should devote his life to building a third party. Shame on him. Solomon can't seem to get an article published anywhere else and will defend this sham government until it completely disintegrates or is overthrown.
Some people can't tell the fresh fruit from the rotten. Others pretend for reasons unknown.
Obama cheerleaders now take up the task of 'working Congress' for a little action. Nauseating. I wish could work myself up into such a delusional state.
Meanwhile, in California: A June ballot measure to change California's primary elections would eliminate write-in candidates in general elections and, opponents say, doom third parties in the state.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/11/MNVP1C9UT0.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0hsQ3Vzm6
Can one smell FEAR in the legislatures? A growing fear that the people have had enough of the stalled duopoly in place of a real democratic representation. fear of real change that could lead to losing their cozy seats.
California's move, with a different SCOTUS, would likely be declared unconstitutional in restricting free and open elections -- but with the Roberts' Court? As it stands the state constitution ought to have SOMETHING for their own Supreme Court to declare this action unfair and unjust.
Gary
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.”
-- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
America, at the end of empire.
Barbara Lee should be a hero of the Progressive movements. I have said this many times. We should be giving her awards.
Barbara Lee was the ONLY person brave enough to vote 'no' on Public Law 107-40 (9/14/01), the law that started this insanity and drives it ever onward ('...the blank check for carnage in Afghanistan sailed through Congress with only her vote dissenting').
Public Law 107-40. Public Law 107-40.
Kucinich's kabuki theater is over, and yet another stupid call for retreating has been squelched.
The only way out of this insanity is to deal with the law that caused it.
As a practical matter, when you're done commenting, I suggest that you do what you can to show America that a war to prevent future terrorism is DAFT.
It's DAFT, the Defense against Future Terrorism. It will end us if we don't end it.
But will she be brave enough to vote no on Obamacare, his insurance company bailout.
Barbara Lee is almost as good as a Democratic congressperson can get. But she has voted for Zionism and various war projects several times since her heroic speech of 2001. Don't idolize her.
David
Defense Against Future Terrorism has a precise clinical name. It's called Paranoia, a common mental illness located, with schizophrenia, over on the crazy end of the spectrum of psychopathology. As a closed system of delusional ideation it affects masses as well as individuals, and for both presents a self fulfilling, self realizing enterprise. I used to help with therapy on them at Colorado Psychiatric Hospital, and I don't recall making much headway with them. Maybe they have developed a medication since then.
From a Jungian point of view the inevitable materialization of our inner demons is a fascinating topic for contemplation and study, but altogether daunting when you try to come up with a cure for it. We're clearly at war with our own fear. Our collective fear, the comeuppance for our collective guilt, is well earned. In our hearts we know that we deserve far more than a couple of collapsed skyscrapers. We can hear the screwdrivers working out there in the dark, assembling lethal devices in Ryder rental trucks to avenge lost homes, lost children. If there were no al Qaeda we'd have to invent one. It looks to me like that's pretty much what we've done.
Is paranoia classified as an STD, by the way?
Because Amerika's practically been LIVING with a once-attractive, but now hideously chancre-studded, Middle Eastern hag who I'd just as soon not name. And I know for a FACT that they don't use protection.
Maybe I'M being a little paranoid myself-- maybe Amerika just caught it from a toilet seat, or by riding a tractor in its bathing suit.
Nation building is such a bitch ain't it? We have to occupy the darned place. Fight off resistance, and then install a puppet government. But got to protect American access to all those resources and put the fear of _our_ God into the rest of the world.
Gary
“You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.”
-- G. K. Chesterton
We told them no. We stood in the streets and yelled by the millions. No to war in Iraq No to the TARP No to the Bankers. And in the great spirit of Dick Cheney they said "So?" and "Go Fuck Yourselves!". And did what they wanted anyway. And what happened?
Representative democracy in this country is dead. Try organizing a general strike here, who would come? The already jobless and homeless. Everyone else has to keep their heads down and keep working lest they too get turned out into the streets. When the guys in suits are losing their suites then we'll see some change.
you made an EXCELLENT observation Jill march.
i have long wondered why it is that the people in other countries, EVEN THOSE with supposedly "oppressive" governments - compared with americans - when finally pushed against the wall - actually are more "IN YOUR FACE" .
note how the opposition against the Junta in Burma or Cambodia - they have been around for a long long time - and actually display FAR more courage than americans do - show it.
same with the Greeks - same with the Icelanders...
even teh French do it. the Italians. the south americans...they go and BLOCk things, and STOP things, at cost to themselves for the sake of proper justice.
but from the american way of "glorifying" everything - especially its seeming obsession with "personalities" or "individuals" --
what you see is a great amount of attention on a FeW individuals who "lead" (for good or ill) and thus will be "heroes"
BUT THE MASSES of people - apply their "admiration" only in terms of "remembering" and "commemorating" (martin luther king, etc.)
BUT NEVER TAKING THE ACTION by themselves.
in contrast -
"faceless, nameless" ordinary people in greece, south america, asia, middle east -
actuallY ARE the leaders themselves - each one of them....massing up.
Most of us where down when we went in to Afghanistan.
The bigger problem is the blatant indifference of the American people, i nearly puked last night when a news caster made fun of Mr. Kennedy's outburst. Then he went on to talk about some fucking sitcome.
Democrat or Republican, pro war or anti war... The current conflicts should be a top issue every day for every American.
In the old Soviet Union the media was considered just another arm of the government and the american media is pretty much like that.
......good point. I always considered the USA the flip side of the coin to Soviet style "communism". Only one system was overthrown..............both are/were wrong
Any legislator who votes for more war by voting more funds for war should be required to enlist and go to war on the front lines. FUCKING COWARDS in the legislature. Cowards. One and all voting more war funding are COWARDLY whores.
War on them. War on us.
I am close to joining those who say that we are doomed.
But, then, there is the power of thoughts that have never before appeared in this world.
Imagine the ways in which the San Francisco Peninsula can be completely sealed off from the outside world. Assume that this plan to do so dates from and originates out of the Second World War.
Imagine that you are one of three Europeans among a larger group who lived through and survived this war and that you, along with them, have relocated to the United States afterwards and insinuated yourself, along with others, into San Francisco Government.
Your assignment is the San Francisco Arts Commission. Eventually, you are joined by two of your cohorts. Your goal is to bring into being the Moscone Convention Center.
The one journalist I read, who wrote that the Arts Commissioners knew what they were doing when they selected Mr. Robert Arneson to sculpt the bust of the murdered San Francisco Mayor George Moscone (I knew Mr. Moscone), is now dead. Was he murdered?
Personally, I've always been suspicious of that open window through which Dan White (the Mayor's killer) penetrated City Hall to carry out his deadly deeds.
What brought about the reappearance of the infamous Moscone Bust in the Public Eye on November 3, 1992, Presidential Election Day? The death of Robert Arneson.
At a later time, a journalist was prompted to write that "the designer of the Moscone Convention Center did not have human beings in mind."
To close, the Moscone Bust was used to deflect attention from the convention center's architecture. Have you ever descended into this gargantuan Chamber Of Death? I have.
Anyone up for project mayhem yet?
what the "FIRST CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE" since getting to afghanistan (and after that moving "ON" to iraq)...
shows is simple:
THE USA way of doing things is
"SHOOT FIRST -- talk later".
and the TALK part is only for show...to pretend that there is actually going to be a 'civilized' result from all the pretense of 'civilized talk'.
Yesterday's House vote on Kucinich's Afghan War Resolution was soundly defeated 356 - 65, with 9 not voting. Out of the 356 votes to shoot down the resolution, 189 of them were Democrats and 167 were Republican. Only five Republicans voted in favor of the Kucinich resolution.
No surprise here. Democrats are just as much a part of the Corporate-War State as are Republicans. My Congressman, allegedly "liberal" Rep. Gary Ackerman (NY CD 5), actually had the gall to say yesterday that House members, "should not be allowed to waste three hours of our time on a resolution that should fail." Apparently, our meetings with him in his local office, our supplying him with much information, our emails, and our phone calls have also been a waste of time.
The Corporate-War Party grinds on, no matter what we do.
That's "government in a box" for you -
The box is a coffin.
"Congress" is little more than a sociopathic cluster of war criminals and corporate sock puppets. They also promote the special interests of the wealthy and themselves.
And wonder why the demo majority we elected to stop the Bush(Carlyle Group)...Cheney (Halliburton) wars and have done nothing ? Bingo...it is their $war$ too.
Kerry (one example of many) has huge investments in the MIC and here is tidbit on Feinstein:
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/10/13/afghanistan/index.html
"Feinstein isn't merely a typical (though particularly destructive) Democratic Senator, but also a very typical Washington insider, as her substantial personal wealth is tied directly to the very National Security State policies she relentlessly works in the Senate to expand. As her hometown San Francisco Chronicle put it in 2003 -- in an article headlined "War brings business to Feinstein spouse: Blum's firms win multimillion-dollar defense contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan": "When it comes to scoring mega-military-related contracts, Sen. Dianne Feinstein's multimillionaire husband, Richard Blum, is right in the thick of things." The article described billions of dollars in military contracts received by companies in which Blum has a large stake from the War on Terror, the Iraq War, the war in Afghanistan, and numerous other policies Feinstein works in the Senate to enable."
Nice work if you can get it. Start a war and get rich at the expense of millions with many thousands very dead.
Time to put Congress on trial for crimes against humanity.
"It can hardly be reassuring to the residents of Marjah that their newly appointed mayor, Haji Zahir, has only recently returned from 15 years of living in Germany."
Response: I believe this is common for many of the US puppet governments to have leaders that come in from the outside (often living in the US a while), go in govern under a "democratic" government" and then after they finish their terms, they leave the country. I wonder if Haji Zahir is living in one of the mud built buildings without electricity and running water in Marjah, as is the case with most buildings there.
And nice article, but given the public lack of awareness on Afghanistan as the corridor for oil and gas pipelines to exploit the resources of Central Asia, every journalist (and every article) writing on the Afghan conflict should at least mention the energy issues.
A quick background on the subject can be found by simply Goolgling Pepe Escobar Pipelineistan.
We all agree Our government is wholly owned/operated by Big Corporate Everything. Correct?
That is Problem Number 1.
Period.
Not the non-war wars or zero job creation or health care system 'reform' or anything else.
Because, until ownership of Our government is transferred back to We The People, nothing will change but the color of the lies.
Now, if we all focused ONLY on regaining control over Our government, then we would succeed, and then we could all go splintering off again into our respective issue fights.
Or - we can keep bitching about this problem and that problem to the Employees the present Owners of The Place hired to increase their bottom lines, and keep hoping they'll eventually listen and (cough) do the right things...
Corporate 'personhood' was created by a scam - it has to go.
EYES WIDE OPEN HANNIBAL LECTURE CARVING YOUR FLESH & BODY PARTS A TIE A SUITE CASE ON THE SIDE & A SMILE THAT SAYS I M PART OF YOU NOW.
It is truly a constitutional an intellectual & political rape of our humanity & an insult to billion years of evolution an utter violation of our SENSES designed to shortcut our very CONSIOUSSNESS intellectually, spiritually or both.
A CORPORATION DOES NOT BREAST FEED NOR DOES IT DIE FOR LIBERTY if anything it does the opposite.
It's the maker of the construct & the industrial military complex, it builds military bases prisons, concentration camps walls coup d'etat dictatorships, torture & nuclear bombs. BP Boeing General electric,Halliburton & the machines that killed Rachel Core in Palestine Caterpillar.
are privatizing the planet & space before our eyes.
We must stop this process of morphing steal with flesh .
They are after control & profit. The shovel does not dictate the climber hero of everest which side of the mountain he is to engage but rather his or her existential thermostat
The shovel is merely a tool. The shovel does not & will never generate courage ethics directions tenderness love or vision and similarly corporations are utterly incapable of being human or a bastion of creativity & spirituality a moral or an economic compass.
People of the world must CONNECT its in the very nature of brain cells to work together, they will try to stop US but they can't for they are part of US.
In Soulidarity
Norman -- terrific, thoughtful article, thank you, and thanks for the reminder of Barbara Lee's courage. I wish I could see what the history books will say about her 100 years from now (if they haven't all been burned, that is). I suggest we all write to Patrick Kennedy and thank him for his outrage -- so sad that it takes screaming at the top of one's lungs to get noticed, even on this, one of the most vitally basic of issues our congress and country continues to face.
Like you, I thank Patrick Kennedy for his outrage, calling to everyone's attention that the press was MIA. However, Representative Kennedy voted "Nay," one of the 356 votes, meaning he did NOT agree with the resolution.
To see how our Representatives voted, go to:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll098.xml
Not many people saw "Hurt Locker" because the reality of what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan takes them out of their comfort zone.
The fact that our military and their civilians are dying every day with no end in sight means little to the vast majority of Americans who can only respond when their wallets are affected.
The new criminal leader they intend to run things in Afghanistan will probably make matters worse, but no one seems to care who they put in that boxy government.
After all is said and done, there is more said than done.
Norman Solomon and Rep. Barbara Lee are rare voices of integrity speaking against the Bush war. Lee's courage in being the only vote against it in the Congress earned her the Wayne Morse Integrity in Politics award. Morse had the same courage when he was one of but two votes against Lyndon Johnson's lying Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that expanded the war in Vietnam. As chair of the award committee in Eugene, Ore. I was villified by rightwingers, which made me all the more proud of our action. - George Beres
The reason the wars are undending, is that the Government has figured out how to have them without causing a whole lot of suffering to the American people.So far, there have been slightly more than 5,000 American casualties in both wars, and that is nothing compared to the 58,000 American casaulties in Vietnam.So the add-on effects on families is small. Most of these deaths are of professional, volunteer soldiers.Also, a lot of our war-making is done by industrial robots-drones-which help keep keeps our casualties low.What really focused the public's attention on ending the Vietnam War was the Draft.It spread the terror of being sent to Vietnam, and just about every young man at the time knew that sooner or later, he was going to either be willingly conscripted, or fight conscription.The logical thing to do is bring back the draft.Without it, there will be war without end, because there is no risk to the general population of military age.It is politically impossible to reinstate the draft.They'be got us in a box, and the wars will continue until we run out of money.
Norm,
Your credibility is forever suspect. Why? You were a delegate for Mr. Obamageddon at the DNC. You helped get the nomination for Mr. Obamageddon.
I think people should never forget this fact.
So I guess my credibility is suspect-and that of the millions of people who put Obama in office.It's always refreshing to be adressed by one's moral and political superiors.
Why, yes, your judgment is suspect. If you are a young man, you can be forgiven, because you will learn or have learned. If you are an old fart, like me, you should have learned to be more discriminating.
Your post on the Vietnam War was spot on, however. I served in the Vietnam War. It was the worst decision of my life. I was fooled by the political system into believing that it was a humanitarian war (if there could ever be such a thing). By 1974, I had grown enough to understand the political elite were using the American people to further their own interests, only.
I know, my moralizing gets boring and offensive. But, if it doesn't hurt, you, and people like you, are going to continue to make the same mistakes, which hurt us all.
Sorry, you don't like being called an idiot and fool. But, facts are facts. I saw Obama coming with all his circus. What happened to you?
We should not forget that a leader of the Democratic Party, Norm Soloman, is greatly responsible for selling this front man, Obama, to us. Never forget.
I know you are setting me up. You may report me to get me removed from this site. But, I don't care. You asked, I answered. If you can't take it, sorry for you.
Since global warming + perpetual wars + economic collapse = doomsday, and time's running out, why waste even a moment on this or that political party? After all they're part of the status quo that's gotten us to this abyss. What's it going to take for us to turn things around? - Vison + Plan + Spirit = Revolution, that's what, with peace on earth and goodwill to all living beings presumably close to the mark as an acceptable Vision, our rising up en masse, the Plan and the all for one and one for all in pursuit of a better world, the Spirit. And the start-up? Everyone who's mad as hell and can't take in no more puts a "Count Me In" bumper sticker* on her/his car, such that, when a critical mass of people become involved (say, one in twenty cars is carrying said bumper sticker), time for action, the specifics of which would be decided online, democraically and based upon the principle of one equals one. Why not go for something other than our rising up en masse? What, like going the third party route, as if all it'll take to change the world is for a different cast to play the cards handed down to them by those founding fathers as a deterrent to any serious attempts at turning things around?
*for rationale for the bumper-sticker tactic, please see "Revolution Not Only Is Possible It's Doable", yourstruly's 2:53 pm post to Bill Quigley's March 7 CD article, "Time For A U.S.Revolution - 15 Reasons"
Mr. Solomon unwittingly repeats the propaganda that Marjah was actually a "town".
This lady's comments demand that we all take a fresh start and take our country back again from the charlatans, thieves and incompetents.
If we don't do it soon, when WILL we do it? Or is this the middle approaching the end of our beloved country as we once knew it?
Norman, you registered Green in 2004. Are you finally ready to leave the militarist Democratic Party and vocally support the only national party that shares your convictions?
If not, I suggest that Common Dreams find anti-war leaders who don't rally support for pro-war candidates.
Today's coverage-- of one bomber-- seems out of focus on a news day when the actual substance of what Patrick Kennedy said could be discussed. As CBS news and The Washington Post and others self-consciously bleat about how they've given sufficient coverage to the Afghan War-- a total lie-- one really has to ask whether the people now engaging in American journalism have any credibility or seriousness to them at all. Yes, you may have covered trivia associated with the Afghan War, but have you really covered the big issue-- I refuse to say "question"-- of America waging foolish war? NOTE: I used the word "bleat" on purpose whether the journalists' defenses of themselves were delivered in unexcited tone or not. Just as the same journalists were so eager to declare Kennedy's brief words-- brief by governmental edict-- "railing" and "rant." Amazing how when one doesn't like someone else's point of view, one immediately becomes Miss Emily Post herself. Kennedy's father could rail and rant all he wanted and it was perfectly okay. Was this because we were used to him? I think that passion against the Afghan war is not only desirable but an absolute requirement, that the American media is passionless and distracted when it comes to any serious issue. The Afghan War is really stupid, as is anyone who supports it or stands idly by. To develop seriousness where there was none, an American could study the ill-advised wars that brought down ancient Greece.
Corporate rule is upon us.
Climate change is upon us.
Good luck.
Try to get to Costa Rica before Limbaugh.
Once again,
I feel concern for the death of institutions that once paid, more or less, for investigative reporting, more or less,
But,
no one can support investigative reporting by purchasing the NYT or by reading it, and allowing them to sell one's attention to SBUX or tomorrow's highest bidder;
So
We need allegiance to and solidarity with subscription and contribution-based organizations.